Publications

27 Mar 2018
First Look

First Look at New Research, March 27, 2018

capabilities. We conclude that incumbent firms have an advantage in innovating in this setting. Download working paper: https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=54282 The Impact of CEOs in the Public Sector: Evidence from the... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

March 2009
Case

Baosteel Group: Governance with Chinese Characteristics

By: Lynn S. Paine and G.A. Donovan

The new outsider-dominated board of directors of China's state-owned Baosteel Group must decide whether to modify the Group's structure. With the completion of a pending acquisition, the Group will control four publicly listed steel-producing subsidiaries, and board... View Details

Keywords: Business Subsidiaries; Corporate Governance; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Governing and Advisory Boards; State Ownership; China

November 2021 (Revised May 2022)
Case

QuantumScape's Mission to Revolutionize Energy Storage for a Sustainable Future

By: William A. Sahlman, Allison M. Ciechanover and Jeff Huizinga

QuantumScape CEO Jagdeep Singh juggles the many activities required to lead the next-generation battery pioneer. Founded in 2010, QuantumScape’s mission was to develop new “solid-state” car batteries that would improve upon traditional lithium-ion batteries in key... View Details

Keywords: Batteries; Electric Vehicles; SPACs; Innovation and Management; Technological Innovation; Science-Based Business; Environmental Sustainability; Auto Industry; Energy Industry; California; San Jose

16 Mar 2003
Research & Ideas

At the Center of Corporate Scandal Where Do We Go From Here?

on how it is implemented—what regulations the SEC develops and how it actually is done—we easily could see a law implemented in a way that will exclude small companies from the public capital markets.... View Details

Keywords: by Kim B. Clark

February 2001 (Revised March 2003)
Case

Extricity Inc.

Extricity provides software that triggers and automates information flows between collaborating businesses. Its products interface with the legacy information systems already in use by customers, extract information from them, and send this information over the... View Details

Keywords: Product Positioning; Internet and the Web; Information Technology; Applications and Software; Information Technology Industry

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Article

Sustainability, Business, and Health

By: George Serafeim, Amanda M. Rischbieth and Howard K. Koh

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has demonstrated that response demands involvement from every sector of society. As a major example, some businesses have stepped up in ways previously unimaginable. Garment companies have repurposed production to face... View Details

Keywords: COVID; COVID-19; Sustainability; Health And Wellness; Corporate Social Responsibility; Health Pandemics; Health; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Corporate Accountability; Health Care and Treatment

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Read Now

December 2019 (Revised January 2021)
Supplement

The Leveraged Buyout of TXU: (B) Energy Future Holdings

By: Trevor Fetter, Erik Snowberg and Rebecca M. Henderson

This case is designed to support a lively discussion about the relative merits of shareholder vs. stakeholder perspectives in the context of a company that provides a vital public service that has important environmental implications. The 2007 purchase of TXU, the... View Details

Keywords: Leveraged Buyouts; Transformation; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Environmental Sustainability; Business and Shareholder Relations; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Energy Generation; Utilities Industry; Energy Industry; Texas

JAMES K. (“Jim”) SEBENIUS, is the Gordon Donaldson Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School, where he founded the Negotiation unit and teaches advanced... View Details

2014
Working Paper

Bridging Science and Technology Through Academic-Industry Partnerships

By: Sen Chai and Willy C. Shih

Scientific research and its translation into commercialized technology is a driver of wealth creation and economic growth. Partnerships to foster the translational processes from public research organizations, such as universities and hospitals, to private firms are a... View Details

Keywords: Innovation; Firm Performance; Public-private Partnership Funding; Translational Research; Small And Medium Enterprises; Partners and Partnerships; Public Sector; Private Sector; Performance; Science-Based Business; Innovation and Invention

SSRN

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January 2023
Supplement

Apple: Privacy vs. Safety (B)

By: Henry McGee, Nien-hê Hsieh and Christian Godwin

In 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic swept across the globe, Apple and Google partnered to develop a contact tracing application that would collect information about users infected with the disease and notify those who they had been in contact with. While Apple/Google’s... View Details

May 2011 (Revised December 2011)
Case

Stuyvesant Town - Peter Cooper Village: America's Largest Foreclosure

By: Arthur I Segel, Gregory S. Feldman, James T. Liu and Elizabeth C. Williamson

In July 2010, William Ackman, the founder of Pershing Square, is considering a potential new opportunity: the acquisition of the distressed Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village ("ST /PCV") complex. The property had recently been abandoned by its owners and had come... View Details

Keywords: Property; Risk Management; Opportunities; Valuation; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Investment; Outcome or Result; Acquisition; North and Central America

January 2002
Background Note

Telecommunications Act of 1996, The

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann and Daniel J. Green

Reed Hundt, former chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, reflects on the passage and implementation of the Telecommunications Act of 1996. The act was intended to stimulate competition and innovation in the telecommunications sector. Its provisions were of... View Details

Keywords: Laws and Statutes; Policy; Business Strategy; Telecommunications Industry; United States

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03 Oct 2006
First Look

First Look: October 3, 2006

L. Bower and Clark Gilbert Abstract Research from a set of studies conducted over thirty-five years shows that actual strategy rather than words on paper at corporate is crafted step by step as company resources are committed to policies,... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

May 2009 (Revised October 2009)
Case

Verne Global: Building a Green Data Center in Iceland

Verne Global, a pioneering startup created to build the first large-scale data center in Iceland, faces critical challenges regarding its green strategy. Verne Co-Founder Isaac Kato is tasked with evaluating how the company can most successfully market and sell the... View Details

Keywords: Buildings and Facilities; Business Startups; Marketing Strategy; Product Marketing; Sales; Environmental Sustainability; Pollutants; Green Technology Industry; Service Industry; Iceland

14 Jul 2008
Research & Ideas

HBS Cases: Reforming New Orleans Schools After Katrina

When Hurricane Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast region of the United States in August 2005, it destroyed homes and lives. A paradoxical effect, however, is that the storm's aftermath created an opening in New Orleans for school leaders to consider anew the direction... View Details

Keywords: by Sarah Jane Gilbert; Education

22 Jul 2019
Book

How to Be a Digital Platform Leader

not the other. One theory is that digital platforms are like the public square. Anybody should be allowed to do anything: it’s a world of free speech, and let the buyer beware. The other theory is that these are environments that reflect... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

March 2012 (Revised September 2012)
Case

INRIX

By: Lynda M. Applegate and Ryan Johnson

Since its founding in 2004, INRIX, a leading global provider of traffic information and driver services, had received four rounds of financing from leading venture capital (VC) firms and by 2012 had been cash flow positive for the past six quarters. Its founder, Bryan... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Leadership; Business Growth and Maturation; Business Exit or Shutdown; Business Startups; Organizational Structure; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Competitive Strategy; Information Technology Industry; Service Industry; Washington (state, US)